Creating Value through Governance – The Cases of State & Family Owned Enterprises

It is widely recognised that good governance enhances the performance of companies by helping them make sound decisions and, in particular, to manage potentially damaging risks. While best practice has been elaborated at international level, it is harder to adapt this to groups, especially those where there is a controlling family or state shareholder.

The subsidiaries of such groups face a particular challenge which is frequently faced by regional companies. They need the independence and entrepreneurial freedom to generate value for their shareholders. Yet they must also remain accountable to the controlling state or family interest. The conference will explore how both sides can best respond.

Creating Value through Governance – The Cases of State & Family Owned Enterprises

Ashraf Gamal El Din

Dr. Ashraf Gamal El Din is the Chief Executive Officer of Hawkamah, the Institute for Corporate Governance. Prior to joining Hawkamah, Dr. Ashraf was the Executive Chairman of Egypt Post, the largest financial institution in Egypt. Before that, he was the Deputy Executive Director of the Egyptian Banking Institute, at the Central Bank of Egypt. He is the founder and first Project Manager of the Egyptian Corporate Responsibility Center, working on promoting the concepts and application of CSR in Egypt. Furthermore, he was the Executive Director of the Egyptian Institute of Directors, the Institute of Corporate Governance in Egypt and the Region. Dr Ashraf served as a board member and head of Audit Committee in a number of listed, non-listed, state owned and family owned companies. He was also a member of the General Assembly of the Holding Company for Transportation.

Furthermore, Dr. Ashraf is an Associate Professor of Management, Faculty of Commerce, Cairo University and holds a PhD degree from Manchester University, UK, and a Master’s degree in Public Administration from Carleton University, Canada, and a Bachelor degree in Business Administration from Cairo University with highest honors.

Bryan Stirewalt

Mr Bryan Stirewalt joined the DFSA in 2008 and has served as a Managing Director of the Supervision Division since 2010. The Supervision Division includes prudential- and conduct-oriented oversight of a variety of financial service providers, including: commercial banks, investment banks, insurance companies, wealth managers, and a variety of advisory services. The Supervision Division also oversees the DFSA’s role with auditors and credit rating agencies. Mr Stirewalt is active in the DFSA’s efforts to fight methods of illicit finance with respect to the entities mentioned above, as well as with other designated non-financial businesses and professions.

Mr Stirewalt has extensive experience in the financial regulatory sphere, in both public and private sector roles. From 1985 to 1996, he worked for the US Treasury’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency as a National Bank Examiner, where he specialised in policy development and implementation, problem bank rehabilitation and banking fraud initiatives.

From 1996 to 2008, he worked for an international consulting and advisory firm, focusing his attention on emerging markets development programmes, including management of large-scale and multi-faceted projects in Poland, Ukraine, Cyprus and Kazakhstan. These projects related to a wide array of topics including financial sector development, risk management policies and practices, anti-money laundering systems and controls and methods of supervising complex financial conglomerates.

Mr Stirewalt serves as the Co-Chair of the Basel Consultative Group (BCG) which provides a forum for deepening the Basel Committee’s engagement with supervisors around the world on banking supervisory issues. The BCG facilitates broad supervisory dialogue with non-member countries on new Basel Committee initiatives early in the process by gathering senior representatives from various countries, international institutions and regional groups of banking supervisors that are not members of the Committee.

Frank Dangeard

Frank E. Dangeard

Mr. Frank Dangeard is Deputy Chairman of Telenor (Norway) and also serves on the boards of Symantec (USA), RPX (USA) and Atari (US/France). He is also member of the boards or advisory boards of a number of non-listed companies in the telecom/technology, finance and energy sectors. He is a member of the Advisory Boards of the Harvard Business School in the US and of HEC in France. He is a “Director-in-Residence” at INSEAD and Chairman of the International Advisory Council of Hawkamah, the corporate governance institute of the MENA region, based in Dubai. He has served on the boards of Crédit Agricole-CIB (France), EDF (Electricité de France), Orange and Wanadoo (France Télécom Group), Eutelsat (France), SonaeCom (Portugal), and has chaired the Strategy Board of PwC (France).

From September 2004 to February 2008, he was Chairman & CEO of Thomson, a world leader in video technologies and services. From September 2002 to September 2004, he was Deputy CEO of France Telecom, an international telecom operator headquartered in Paris, France. He joined Thomson multimedia in 1997 as Deputy CEO, and was appointed Vice Chairman in 2000. Prior to joining Thomson multimedia, from 1988 to 1997, Frank Dangeard was a Managing Director of the investment bank SG Warburg & Co. Ltd., in London and Madrid, then Chairman of SG Warburg France. From 1986 to 1988, he was with Sullivan & Cromwell LLP in New York and London.

Frank Dangeard, who is a French national, was born in Canada on February 25, 1958. He graduated from the École des Hautes Études Commerciales (Prix Jouy-Entreprise), the Paris Institut d’Études Politiques (Lauréat) and from the Harvard Law School (Fulbright Scholar, HLS Fellow). He and his wife live in London.

He is Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite and Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur. His most recent book, “La décision de crise dans l’entreprise – 12 histoires de gouvernance”, was published in February 2011 by Editions Odile Jacob, Paris.

George Dallas

Mr. George Dallas was appointed Policy Director at International Corporate Governance Network in 2014, where he coordinates ICGN’s governance polices and committees, and plays an active role in ICGN’s regulatory outreach. George is also a senior visiting fellow at Cass Business School, and is currently consulting for the World Bank on a project to establish a stewardship code in an African capital market.

Previously, George served as Director of Corporate Governance at F&C Investments in London, where he led F&C’s global policies relating to corporate governance, proxy voting and engagement matters. Prior to joining F&C George was a Managing Director at Standard & Poor’s over a 24 year period, including as head of Standard & Poor’s European credit rating operations and global head of S&P’s governance services unit. Mr. Dallas holds a BA degree, with distinction, from Stanford University and an MBA from the Haas School of the University of California at Berkeley.

Mishal H. Kanoo

Mr. Mishal Kanoo serves as the Deputy Chairman of The Kanoo Group, one of the largest, independent and longest running family owned groups of companies in the Gulf region. He is also one of the most iconic business figures in the Middle East, featured on various magazines and listed in ‘Top 100 Powerful Arabs 2013’, ‘The 15 Wealthiest Arab Businessmen in the World 2012’, among others.

Born in Dubai and educated until high school locally, Mishal Kanoo continued his college studies in United States. He took Comparative Theology and Philosophy and double major in Economics as his first degree and later earned his MBA in Finance from University of St. Thomas in Houston. After awhile, he pursued higher learning and obtained his second MBA from American University of Sharjah where he occasionally teaches courses.

Subsequently, he worked at Arthur Andersen in Dubai as an Auditor before taking up his current position in 1997.

Mishal Kanoo is a frequent speaker at conferences and has a reputation of a futurist and strategist with a strong track record in forecasting economic developments in the Middle East. Some of his speaking engagements include Forbes’s Middle East Forum in Qatar, World Summit of Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Dubai, The International Herald Tribune’s CEO Round-table in Malaysia, and other related business and social affairs in Europe, US, and so on.

He is a columnist of Money Works Magazine and regularly writes articles for local and regional media. His wide-ranging knowledge of regional business affairs and global capital markets give him unique and often controversial insight into business life in the Gulf region.

As a Professor at the American University of Sharjah School of Business Administration, he is consequently a powerful advocate of education and believes that it allows people to take responsibility and control of their lives, spelling out ethical and religious values, blending them with modernisation and progress.

Mishal Kanoo adheres to family values and ideals in pursuit for quality and excellence which therefore greatly influenced his corporate policies and goals for The Kanoo Group as a reputable company. It is a generation of success, growth and stability. Over the years, Kanoo family has always been associated with the progress and development of the entire region combined with a sense of philanthropy.

Today, The Kanoo Group as a prominent house name has developed local as well as world-class standards as evident in its brand value and consistent remarkable achievements through Shaikh Khalifa Excellence Award, ISO certifications, and as a UAE brand asset earning its Superbrands® status, to name a few.

Peter Montagnon

Mr. Peter Montagnon is Associate Director, Institute of Business Ethics. Prior to this he was Senior Investment Adviser at the Financial Reporting Council, with responsibility for addressing corporate governance policy and strengthening the FRC’s understanding of the investor community.

Peter was a Senior Journalist on the Financial Times for twenty years, before becoming Director of Investment Affairs at the Association of British Insurers.

After graduating in Modern Languages from Cambridge University in 1972, Mr Montagnon joined Reuters news agency as a financial journalist, completing assignments in Hong Kong, Zurich and Washington before joining the Financial Times.

Mr Montagnon is a visiting Professor in Corporate Governance at the Cass Business School of the City University, London, and a member of the Corporate Governance Advisory Board of Norges Bank Investment Management. He is past Chairman of the Board of the International Corporate Governance Network and served on the European Commission’s Corporate Governance Forum from 2005 to 2011.

Sameer Al Ansari

Dr. Sameer Al Ansari qualified as a Chartered Accountant in London in 1987 and has worked in Dubai since then.

Sameer founded PEPlus in 2012, a regional boutique advisory firm and is an active Board member of TVM Capital MENA, a regional healthcare private equity fund. He was the Chief Executive Officer of SHUAA Capital, the region’s leading financial services institution between Sept 2009 and Oct 2011. Between 2004- 09, Mr. Al Ansari was the founding Chairman & CEO of Dubai International Capital, creating a global investment company with AUMs of $13B by 2008. He was also the founding Chairman of JD Capital (Jordan Dubai Capital) in 2005, and the founding Chairman of MENA
Infrastructure Fund in 2006.

He previously served as Group Chief Financial Officer for The Executive Office of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum.

Prior to joining the Executive Office, Mr. Al Ansari was Chief Financial Officer at Dubai Aluminium Company (DUBAL) between 1992-2000, where he played a significant role in the successful turnaround of the company to what is today one of the largest and most profitable aluminium companies in the world.

Sameer is widely considered as one of the most respected senior financial figures in the GCC and has and continues to sit on many Boards around the world. Below listed current Board positions:

Shahzad Khan

Mr. Shahzad is Group Head of Corporate Governance & Compliance for the Mubadala Group, and Secretary to the Mubadala Investment Committee.

He is a Barrister (Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn) and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England & Wales, as well as a Certified Compliance Officer and a contributor to several international and regional governance symposiums. Additionally, he is a member of the Conference Board’s Council of Governance.

Prior to joining Mubadala, Shahzad worked at the London office of Allen & Overy and for the Executive Office of the U.N. Secretary General in New York, having read Jurisprudence at the University of Oxford.

Simon C.Y. Wong

Mr. Simon C.Y. Wong is an independent adviser on governance, institutional investment, and capital markets. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Law at Northwestern University, Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and External Senior Advisor at McKinsey & Company.

Previously, Simon was a partner at activist investment firm Governance for Owners, Head of Corporate Governance at Barclays Global Investors, and a management consultant at McKinsey. Simon started his professional career as a securities lawyer with Linklaters & Paines and Shearman & Sterling, and also served as Principal Administrator/Counsel at the OECD.

Simon has contributed actively to policymaking and testified before the UK House of Commons in 2013 on The Kay Review of UK Equity Markets and Long-Term Decision Making. His writings have appeared in the McKinsey Quarterly, Financial Times, Harvard Business Review Online, New York Times, and other publications. In 2013, he contributed three essays to the Harvard Business Review volume on How CEOs Can Fix Capitalism.

Stilpon Nestor

Stilpon Nestor is the Managing Director of Nestor Advisors Ltd, a London- based corporate governance and organization consultancy. He has advised the boards of some of the largest companies and financial institutions in the EU, MENA, Asia and Latin America as well as several IFIs, including the World Bank/IFC, the EBRD, SECO and FMO.

Until March 2002, Stilpon was the Head of the Corporate Affairs Division at the OECD, the team which produced the OECD Principles, the global corporate governance benchmark.

He is a non-executive director of ACC, one of the largest contractors in the Gulf. He was also a NED and member of the risk committee of the European Investment Bank (2009-2013); a member of the EU Commission’s Advisory Board on Company Law and Corporate Governance (2007-2011); and a member of the board of the International Corporate Governance Network (2004-2007).

Tarek Hajjiri

Mr. Hajjiri is the Director of Legal Policy, one of the strategic operational arms of the Dubai Economic Council (“Council”) Government of Dubai, UAE. Mr. Hajjiri serves as the Council’s advisory on all legal and regulatory matters at both local and federal levels that affect Dubai’s economy and competitiveness. Mr. Hajjiri through his position as Legal Policy director actively participates in the development of legal strategies and policies by providing policy recommendations that are the culmination of extensive research and collaboration with public and private sector representatives both locally and internationally.

Mr. Hajjiri has established global legal advisory network to benefit from the best practices. He worked on numerous projects, including among other things innovation and creativity, smart governments and cities, free zones, companies law, foreign direct investment, corporate governance, financial restructuring and insolvency, competitiveness and government strategies.

Mr. Hajjiri works closely with international organizations and financial institutions and led projects and several engagements with the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Arab Monetary Fund, China Development Bank, China Council for Promotion of International Trade, United Nations Development Program, INSOL, UNCITRAL, INTA, WIPO and many others. Mr Hajjiri’s recent focal projects are corporate governance, innovation, smart governments and enhancing the role of SMEs towards economic sustainable growth. In recognition of his exceptional accomplishments, Mr Hajjiri was awarded the “Best Professional Achievement Award” for the years 2012 and 2014.

Mr Hajjiri has also established the Corporate Social Responsibility Department “CSR” and has successfully created new strategies for promoting the public private partnerships “ppp” through strategic alliances as well as learning & development programs. Mr Hajjiri has successfully established a global and local network including all relevant leading institutions. As a result of such programs, DEC internship program has successfully supported graduated young Emiratis. He is also working on new initiative focusing on innovation and creativity in addition to several community service initiatives including health care.

Prior to joining the Council Mr. Hajjiri was the Regional Chief Legal Officer for multibillion US$ holding company advising on strategic planning, corporate governance, and managing all legal matters including structuring and restructuring of the holding companies. Mr. Hajjiri also has extensive experience in private practice in the UAE, Jordan, Canada and USA. Mr Hajjiri is a registered and licensed arbitrator with Dubai International Arbitration Center “DIAC” where he successfully arbitrated several cases including construction and commercial disputes. In addition to arbitration, Mr Hajjiri is an expert mediator.

Mr. Hajjiri holds Masters degree in Intellectual Property Law from Franklin Pierce, as now known as the University of New Hampshire, USA, and has also written many papers and edited books in respect to Commercial Law, innovation and smart cities.

Mr Hajjiri is now preparing for his PhD in commercial law and has successfully completed his first year course work where he ranked the First among his fellow students. Mr Hajjiri’s thesis focuses on “Family Owned Businesses. A Comparative Study.”